Grapplers head to State B-C Tourney

The Malta Mustangs Wrestling team is heading to Billings for the 2020 State Class B-C Wrestling Tournament, and the crew will feature five wrestlers.

Seniors Callan Mears, and Kendall Moore, sophomore Shane Soul, freshmen Cameron Mikesell, and Camryn Mears have each earned their way to the annual State Tournament held at the First Interstate Arena at MetraPark (formally known as Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark) by placing in the top four in their weight classes at the Northern B-C Tournament held in Conrad last weekend.

"That is the best we have wrestled all year," Malta Head Coach Steve French told the PCN. "I was pretty happy with the way we showed up."

Malta placed fifth at the event with 90 points among their nine wrestlers. Cut Bank won the event, becoming that first team to win since Malta's three-peat which started in 2017. Cut Bank had 157 points among 16 wrestlers. Simms took second with 102 points and 10 wrestlers. Fairfield took third with 98, and Fort Benton-Big Sandy took fourth with 96 points and 10 wrestlers.

Cal. Mears, is the only member of the Mustangs to have performed at state last season, placing fifth in the 145-pound class. He also made state in 2018. Mears became a two-time Northern B-C champion last Saturday with a 11-9 decision over Cut Bank's Austin Vanek. He was the 145-pound Northern B-C Champion last year. He also won the 132 Northern B-C title in 2018.

Cal. Mears was dominant in his win over Vanek, and seemed as though he would get a Major Decision before Vanek scored crucial points later in the match.

Cal. Mears shared honors for Malta's Wrestler of the week with Soul, who took third at the event, much to the surprise of many that were around him that day.

Soul made quite the jump in the rankings, entering the tourney ranked eleventh before finishing third.

Soul went 5-1 last weekend, and won his opening match against Brock Barcus of Cut Bank by pinfall at 3:02. Soul lost the next round to Cut Bank's Mathew Larson by pinfall at 2:44. Soul would win his next four matches, all by pin fall. He defeated Conrad's Zach Durnell at 4:37, then Choteau's Kaide Kindler at 2:53, and Fairfield's Cael Giles at 2:38 in the semi-final consolation match. His win gave the crowd something they likely haven't seen before.

"He came up with a new move that I had never seen," Coach French said with a laugh. "We had been telling Shane that someday he is going to break out and wrestle really well on the weekends because he has been wrestling really well in practice."

In the 138 third place match, Soul was able to pin Fort Benton's Bayley Genereux in 1:38, the Mustang's quickest pin of the week.

Mikesell wrestled at 113 and Camryn Mears wrestling at 145, each took second place in their respective weight classes.

Cam. Mears defeated Colten Barsness of Cut Bank by pinfall at 4:44 and then won the semi-final match over Shelby's Tyler Larson in a tie-breaker. The final score was 5-4.

Cam. Mears faced Conrad's Ron Barnhill in the 145 championship match but lost by 9-2 decision.

Mikesell opened the tournament with a bye and then pinned Cut Bank's Hunter Kennedy with four seconds remaining in the second round. Mikesell lost the 113 championship to Fairfield's Miguel Ramos by 11-5 decision.

Moore took third in the 170 class, defeating Hunter Decker of Simms by pin fall at 3:41. Prior to facing Decker in the third place match, Moore defeated teammate Tye Jones in the consolation semi-finals by 8-5 decision.

Moore opened the tourney by picking up a quarterfinal win over Decker by 4-0 decision. He lost his second match of the tournament in the semifinals to Chinook's JT Hauer by 12-5 decision.

Prior to his exit, Jones won one of his four matches, defeating Fairfield's Cole Troy by pin fall at 1:40.

205-pounder Dre Oshio struggled in an experienced class, going 0-2. Spencer Gibbs also went 0-2 in the 152 class.

At state, Mikesell (37-14) will have his first match against Spur Owens who went 30-13 and took third place in the south. Soul (14-23) will see the West's runner-up Conrad Vanderwall of Plains (26-12) in his first state match. Cam Mears (34-14) will face Arlee's Colt Crawford (28-10). Crawford was third in the West. Cal Mears (32-8) will face Arlee's Demetrix Austin (17-12) who was fourth in the West. Moore (22-26) will face Huntley's William Loveridge (36-14), who was second in the South.

The first day of All-State Wrestling Tournament is set to start at 10 a.m. on Friday, February, 14.

Day two starts at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, February 15.